


Each Time

by Rosencrantz



Category: La Barbe bleue | Bluebeard - Charles Perrault
Genre: Both one and several murders, F/M, Learning from mistakes, timeloop
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-16
Updated: 2018-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-07 20:05:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,336
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14678496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosencrantz/pseuds/Rosencrantz
Summary: Once upon a time there was a man with a ghastly blue beard who professed to love a beautiful girl.A story about first, second, third, fourth, and many more chances.





	Each Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thedevilchicken](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/gifts).



> Thank you to my beta Vali! 
> 
> I heard you like timeloops, so here's a heaping topping.

**_Once upon a time_** there was a very rich man with a very blue beard who very much desired a wife.

However, no woman would have him, for the beard made him look ghastly. There were also rumours that he'd had many wives before. Women would whisper of his missing wives as he passed, but if you asked them, no one could name any wife of his. But still, they said. There had been wives. 

And those wives were now gone.

If you asked him, he would say that he only cared for one woman. And that when they were wed, their lives together would be written of for ages to come.

**_Once upon a time_** there was a beautiful girl named Susan, who had a dear sister Anne and two brothers named Thomas and Christopher who were soldiers of great skill.

Each day, it seemed, Bluebeard (for while he had a name, Maxwell, she did not bother to use it when discussing him) would come by her family's estate to plead his case to her mother. It was his heart's wish, he said, to marry Susan. Love at first sight, he said. 

Her mother would always say no, her daughter wanted nothing to do with him and his riches were not sufficient to sway her into denying her daughter's wishes agreeing to the marriage, though her own curiosity for Bluebeard's wealth and home were never far from her thoughts. 

Susan would listen outside her door to his pleas. How well he would treat her, he said! How lovely her life would be! How true his love was!

She was glad when her mother would turn him out, though she knew he'd return. She knew that a man like Bluebeard always had plans. As did she.

A gilded invitation arrived at the household one morning.

Susan knew what the invitation would say even before she opened it: A request for the family to join a grand party at Bluebeard's estate. 

"It wouldn't be terrible," said her mother. "Just a bit of fun. And I would dearly like to see how someone as rich as Bluebeard lived. Going to a party is no agreement to anything, you need not worry."

Susan agreed to go, as she knew she would from the moment she picked up the invitation.

The party was predictably wonderful. His house was a thing of beauty! His lands, rich with game and flowers. Guests laughed and played, barely sleeping! They would hunt, they would explore Bluebeard's house, and begin again the next day. 

Susan enjoyed herself greatly, despite what she knew would come. The party was her undoing. Bluebeard wooed her, his beard appearing less blue by the day. In fact by the end of the week-long party, he was practically handsome!

And Susan agreed to marry Bluebeard.

The wedding went off with mechanical precision. It wasn't Bluebeard's first, and Susan knew now what to do. 

Shortly after the wedding, Bluebeard took his wife's hands into his.

"I must go on business," he said.

"I know," said Susan.

"I will be gone six weeks," he said.

"I know," said Susan.

"While I am gone, I entrust you to the keys of my estate," he said. "These keys of silver open all my treasures so that you may never want of money. These keys of bronze open all my apartments, so that you may entertain yourself and have run of the house. And this key of gold opens a small closet in the cellar that you must never go into. Should you do so, I will be rightly angered and resentful of you."

"I know," said Susan.

She watched Bluebeard ride off the next morning in his carriage. 

She went down to the cellar and opened the closet. She saw the bodies and the bloody floor.

She dropped the key in the blood. She always dropped the key in the blood.

This time, she tried leaving the key in the room.

When Bluebeard came back, Susan's body joined the other Susans in the closet.

**_Once upon a time_** there was a rich man known as Bluebeard who wanted to marry a beautiful woman named Susan. 

Each day he would go to her mother's house to plead his case. Each day he was turned away.

One day an invitation arrived, inviting Susan and her family to a grand party at Bluebeard's estate.

Susan lured Bluebeard to a quiet corner and at the party's height, attempted to stab him.

Susan's body joined the other Susans in the closet.

**_Once upon a time_** , Susan ran away.

Bluebeard was faster and Susan's body joined the other Susans in the cellar.

**_Once upon a time_** there was man of immense wealth and blue beard named Maxwell. He wished to marry his neighbour, a girl named Susan.

Each day he would go to her mother's house and talk of all he would do for her daughter if she would simply marry him. 

Susan begged her mother to say no, and no her mother would answer.

The invitation arrived for the party anyway.

Susan married Bluebeard.

This time when he left, he said he didn't want her to be lonely, that she should surround herself with company. She had invited everyone. Her friends. Her neighbours. Her family. She had told her brothers, bring their guns.

Maybe this time she could change things. Stay away from the closet.

She could not keep away from the closet. 

But this time, after entering, she explored it. He would come home soon anyway. Above her, the party raged on.

She looked at each Susan that was hung on the wall. Many had died the same way, a knife to the heart. How many times? She thought, as she counted the bodies. The tale of Bluebeard's many wives lay there before her. All Susan. Forced to disappoint his monstrous expectations each time.

The floor was clotted with blood. The same blood that would stain the key she'd left by the entrance when it had, as always, fallen from her hand.

She walked through the room. She didn't think of how the blood was destroying her skirt, her shoes. 

In the center of the room was a small box with a snake eating its own tail carved on the lid. She had never seen it, each time fleeing the horrors of the room after making out only the first horrible detail.

She opened the box. She gasped and stepped back, yanking her hands away. The little snake inside, with glittering opalescent scales, slithered out and through a crack in the cellar wall.

Deciding she had seen enough, and that she would have another chance to explore, another chance to stay in that room forever, she prepared to leave.

She picked the key up out of the blood. She knew she couldn't clean the blood off.

She walked past the party and sat by the door, waiting for her brothers or Bluebeard to arrive. Just because her fate was sealed didn't mean she couldn't try. 

When Bluebeard strode in, she held up the bloody key. 

Bluebeard's face contorted into rage, his beard a brilliant blue. He held up his sword to lop her head from her shoulders.

But this time, her brothers were there. The sound of rifles going off echoed through the estate and Bluebeard fell, dead.

And the next day happened. And the day after that happened. And another.

And Susan did not join the other Susans.

Susan inherited the estate, every inch of beautiful lands and furniture. Every gem, every scrap of gold. She paid for her family to be kept well and marry well. She found herself a new husband. A fine husband who'd never lay a hand on her.

When she went to the closet, as she would each morning to be sure, it was empty. No blood on the floor. No bodies on the wall. Just a small box, lid open.

She always made sure to lock the door when she left it.


End file.
